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Look beyond the stranger

The Adam Walsh kidnapping and murder occurred when my children were young, and I well remember standing outside the KayBee toy store, eyes alert to stranger danger as my offspring wandered the aisles. The fear was real enough, but the danger was almost non-existent.

The Penn State sex abuse scandal is the kind of story that is bound to heighten suspicion of coaches or other men who have access to children. If you want to be a youth volunteer these days, you’d better be prepared for scrutiny. That in itself is OK, but it’s not going to do much to stop sexual abuse, because sexual molestation usually has nothing to do with strangers or people known only casually. It’s about relatives or family friends abusing trust as they abuse children, a kind of double stab in the back.

Penn State shows how hard it is for many people to face up to sexual abuse in an institutional environment. It must be harder when the person you suspect is your husband or father or brother. But in that setting, you also know the possible victim, whose protection from further abuse is in your hands.

One Response

As sports and religion which is mostly an all male entity, it has become the nature to commit these crimes as if it’s okay. ”We’re men of God”. Or, ”Boys will be boys, but don’t tell my wife”… The culture of the convenient conservative silence…